Upset, cop ends life

Bariatu police station in Ranchi where constable Prafulla Mahto was posted

A Ranchi district police constable was found hanging in a well with a rope tied to an adjacent pillar at Tetar Toli in Bairautu police station area on Wednesday morning.

Prafulla Mahto (31), a 2005 batch constable who was posted at Bariatu thana, had apparently killed himself out of depression.

SP (city) Manoj Ratan confirmed to The Telegraph that the constable had taken his own life although no suicide note was found.

ďThe constable was looking depressed for the past few days after his diagnostic tests had revealed that he was suffering from tuberculosis,Ē Ratan added.

The SP (city) added that Mahtoís family at Gumla had ben informed about his death.

A case of unnatural death has been registered in this connection at Bariatu police station. The statement of the wife of another constable Anil Kumar was taken as she was the first one to come across the body.

She found Mahto hanging when she when to fetch water at the well located inside the Tetar Toli police lines where the men in uniform reside with their families.

Mahto, however, used to stay alone as he was unmarried. According to sources, talks were on with a family in Chhattisgarh to finalise his marriage.

The deceasedís body was sent for post-mortem at Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS).

A medical board examined the body to ascertain the exact cause of death. Reports will come on Thursday.

This is the second suicide by a policeman in the capital.

On March 22, 2013, deputy superintendent of police (CID) Chandi Kumar Maitra had hanged himself from the ceiling fan of his drawing room in AG Colony in Doranda police station area. That time, too, no suicide note was found.

Maitra was scheduled to retire in July 2013. A case of unnatural death was registered at Doranda thana.

Work pressure seemed to be the reason behind the suicide, sources had said.